Jamie Coughlin: Director of entrepreneurship, Dartmouth College
An entrepreneur, Jamie Coughlin is dedicated to strengthening NH’s start-up ecosystem and to helping innovative companies grow in the Granite State. Coughlin helped grow the abi Innovation Hub in Manchester (now Alpha Loft) beyond a business incubator by launching the TechOut competition, a partnership with the NH High Tech Council, which offered $100,000 in funding for the winner.
He is now helping entrepreneurs on a larger scale as director of entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College, including new ventures and incubation, and as director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN), part of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer.
When Dartmouth leadership expressed a desire to make Dartmouth a premier destination for entrepreneurs to develop ideas and launch businesses, Coughlin was selected to head up entrepreneurship efforts at the school.
“We are defining entrepreneurship as being broad. It is the skill set of the 21st Century. An ability to think entrepreneurially should be applied to an art student and an engineering student and everyone in between,” Coughlin says.
The DEN Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator officially launched Oct. 1 after raising $4.3 million, although Coughlin has been on the job since July 2013 laying the groundwork for the center and its programs. That job has included bringing in top CEOs and entrepreneurs to speak with students, such as the founder and CEO of kayak.com.
It’s also meant developing a quarterly “Pitch It” competition that will award $1,000 to $5,000 to winning business concepts.
Coughlin says he wants to create an accelerator program that would award $25,000 to $50,000 in seed money to launch new ventures.
“It’s the big leagues. It gives me the opportunity to pursue something I have found to be very fulfilling—creating new ventures through the art of incubation. The opportunity to engage on a global platform in New Hampshire is a win-win in my mind,” Coughlin says of Dartmouth’s international reputation.
Coughlin’s endeavors extend beyond Dartmouth. He is on the board of NH Catholic Charities, Alpha Loft, the NH High Tech Council and is president of the NH Business Incubator Network. “I think there is an immense opportunity to bridge and further connect the Upper Valley community with other constituents in the state and vice versa,” he says. He also serves on Gov. Maggie Hassan’s Economic Development Advisory Council and recently joined the board of the National Business Incubation Association.